Long Walk
- Congratulations and well done to all those who participated in our Long Walk
on Saturday.

To everyone who helped on the day, a BIG thank you.
Your support and help to ensure the
safety of our walkers is always greatly appreciated.

Have a great week,
Kim Hooper
Marketing Manager

Google Calendars for parents

We plan ahead as far as possible for test dates and sporting fixtures, and so information gets added into these areas often. For this reason, we have set up a number of different Google Calendars to allow parents and students to access information as soon as it is available, so that they may also plan ahead.

We have a separate calendar for each Grade’s academic deadlines starting from
Grade 5 onwards. This allows teachers to make sure that a grade is not getting overloaded with deadlines bunching up. We also have separate sporting calendars for each Phase of the school.

"So he got up and went to his father. While he was still far away, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him affectionately”. Luke 15:11

I was never a person who really liked hugs until my children really taught me how to hug, as they are totally unrestrained in giving their affection towards me. My little one Naomi literally throws herself into my arms, legs and any area she can find an opening in which she can launch herself at me. Here Jesus is telling us the story of the Prodigal Son, in which the father represents Our Father in heaven. It shows us that God is a compassionate Father who forgives and shows His affection with hug and a kiss. An intimacy that reveals to us the nature and character of God, who initiates, restores and maintains a fellowship with His children. With Easter fast approaching we are again reminded of God’s gift of Himself on the cross in order to restore the relationship with His creation – us. What a God we serve: ”To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen”.

The Long Walk is over and we can look back on another hugely successful event. Thank you to all of the 700 volunteers who gave us their services on the day. You were amazing! This incredible teamwork is what makes this school so special. Whether you were a marshal, a food helper, a medic or performed any other role, please take a bow.

The planning committee were exceptional! Wayne Jaggard, Rae Griesel and the whole team did not have an easy job this year. Considerable changes were necessary as access to previous routes became restricted. In a few cases marshals and helpers had to be reshuffled at the last minute which added to the stress. Thank you to everyone for being so supportive and understanding.

While there were many stories of success and achievement on the day, the most emotional moments where surely when the last groups of walkers came in on Saturday evening after 18 hours on the road. Lots of hugs and tears were shed, in most cases by the proud moms and dads.

The Long Walk is a fantastic example of the power of character and resilience. It is not always the big, strong, sporty children that succeed. This is about grit and determination! It can give quiet, unassuming children huge self belief and I truly believe that the Long Walk can change lives. Long live the Long Walk!

The Open Days for 2015 enrolment were held from Thursday to Saturday last week. We were delighted with the attendance and can look forward to an excellent crop of new pupils next year.

Our changes to the parking facilities and traffic flow seem to be bringing some small relief. May I however appeal to all drivers to please be as considerate as possible to others and not to linger when you are blocking other vehicles. It is not always necessary to drop the children as close as possible to their classrooms. They are young and healthy and a little exercise will do no harm. We can do nothing about the traffic back up due to Fields Hill congestion, but let's do what we can about frustrations on campus.

We had a wonderful evening of One-Act plays last Wednesday evening and the quality of the presentations was excellent. The event also unearthed some exciting new talent! My sincere congratulations go to the Drama department, the young directors, the actors and the various back stage and lighting groups. Thank you for an enjoyable and special experience.

My sincere congratulations also go to all the walkers last Saturday, and the tremendous effort that was put in. Heartfelt thanks to all parents who assisted on this very special day on our calendar.

Once again I was moved to tears many a time on seeing young and old alike put themselves against themselves and emerge triumphant on our Long Walk on Saturday. Many accomplished what they thought was unattainable and in so doing have built character and accomplished something that will shape their lives and stand them in good stead in life’s lessons. This epic event was once again a resounding success – many thanks to Wayne Jaggard, Rae Griesel and the organising committee on a mammoth task well done. Also well done to all those who achieved their goals, no matter whether it was the shorter (but still long!) distances walked by our Foundation Phase or the longer 25 kms for our SP or the very long 55 or 80 kms! It was very heart- warming to see the camaraderie between people of all ages and the caring and support for others, so typical at Thomas More. It is humbling to be a part of this very special tradition- thanks to everyone for the role you played!

Well done to our swimmers who swam their best in the SP Highway ‘A’ zone gala
which we co-hosted on Thursday afternoon/ evening. This and the D & D Gala at Kings’ Park is good preparation for our own inter-house gala which takes place this Friday 20 March from 08:00 -13:00 in our own Patrick Akal pool. Parents are welcome to support and to take children home after the gala. The SP will close at 13:00 on Friday.

Tonight is our Grade 7 Zenith Graduation. Those participating need to be in the Mackenzie Centre by 17:30 for a prompt 18:00 start. I am looking forward to hearing our graduating Grade 7’s deliver their speeches and am delighted to hear how much they have improved and what good progress they have made. The skills they have acquired are skills for life, so will stand them in good stead for the future.

In these last few days before the end of term, we have many parent teacher interviews taking place, with our Foundation Phase interviews on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 March in the afternoon, from 14:00 – 18:00 as per times booked. Our Senior Primary interviews are scheduled for Tuesday 24 March from 16:00- 19:00 in the Habberton Hall. You will receive your child’s report on Monday and trust you will study it closely and then avail yourselves of the opportunity to see either the class teacher or both the class teacher and subject teachers, depending on the area of concern. These interviews are very necessary to get further feedback in the best interests of your child.

All the best for the busy week ahead and to our Grade 2s ‘Food from around the world’ on Thursday, and our Grade 3s for their Treasure Beach outing on Friday.

Congratulations to Courtney Sim and Lola Lee who both represented KZN in December 2014 at a tournament in Johannesburg for U13 Girls' Cricket. Courtney was chosen as Captain. The KZN team won the tournament having won all six of their matches. Well done girls.

Cricket TMPS 3rd Team vs St Henry's

score: 8 runs 10 wickets

Bowlers: T. Levarelli 1.1 overs 1 run 3 wickets

Q. Knocklein 3 overs 4 runs 3 wickets

R. Wynne 2 overs 0 runs 2 wickets

TMPS 12 runs 0 wickets

score: 12 runs 0 wickets

TMPS 3rd Team won by 10 wickets

Cricket TMPS 2nd vs Winston Park

TMPS 2nd vs Winston Park 2nd

TMPS 2nd 88 / 8 after 20 Overs

Lexi Criticos 41

Winston Park 90 / 2 after 17 Overs

TMPS lost by 2 wickets

Cricket TMPS 2nd
Team vs St Henrys

St Henrys 28 /7 after 20 overs

Lola Lee 3 for 1.

TMPS 2nd 30 / 0

Tim Bartlett 17 not out, Lexi Criticos 13 not out

TMPS 2nd won by 10 wickets

Cricket TMPS 1st Team vs St Henry's

113 for 4, R Savage 51no

St Henry’s 55 for 9, R Camp 4 for 16, T Henwood 2 for 5

TMPS 1st won by 58 runs

Grade 2 & 3 Gala at Forest View

Our Gr. 2 & 3s swam in our home gala. There was good competition and we had the following results:

1st place – 7

2nd place – 7

3rd place – 6

4th place – 8

5th place – 9

6th place – 5

U9 Hardball Cricket vs Hillcrest Primary

TMC played Hillcrest on Wednesday and lost the toss & were sent into bat. Expectations were high after a fantastic week of practice. However, the occasion got the better of the batsman and soon they found themselves 15/9. Only the last wicket partnership between Kylie McIntyre and Daniel Coleman helped the team to 29 all out. TMC then took to the field trying to defend a low total. The bowling unit struggled against some disciplined batting and only managed one wicket before Hillcrest knocked off the runs. Looking forward to a better week of cricket this week.

Grade 3 Netball Tournament

Our Grade 3s played in their 2nd tournament for the term. They all had fun and we had the following results:

All of these calendars start out with basic information and then details are added as we find them out. E.g. at the start of a term, a subject test will be booked for a later date. As the time draws closer, the teacher is able to determine more fully what syllabus the class has managed to cover thus far, and will fill in details of what will be in the test at that stage.

It is important to note that this information is “live” and needs to be checked regularly. We have links to the different calendars available inside our website, found under the different Phase sections. We also have links to the same calendars inside the Parent Portal. The calendars that apply can be found under each of your child’s subheadings.

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The Horse’s Mouth Newsletter has all calendar links available to be able to easily find whichever calendars you need to.

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How to use the Google Calendar:

After you have clicked on the relevant calendar link, it will show you the default monthly view of the calendar:

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There are navigation buttons at the top left to change dates easily to look back or to future events:

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You are able to change the view of the calendar using the buttons at the top right to show only a week at a time, the default monthly view, or if you click on “Agenda” then you will see a list of events scheduled:

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Please note – it is not a good idea to print the calendar out, as the information might get updated and you will not realize this if you are referring to a print out of a calendar at a certain point in time.

To see more details about a heading in the calendar, you need to click on that heading – it will pop-up a small window giving you what details have been filled in already. This is where we have information such as which teams are playing and times, and also what material will be covered in a test/examination:

It is important to note here that it is also not a good idea to click on the bottom option “Copy to my calendar” here, for the same reason as printing, you will not receive updated information if anything changes in the live calendar.